I’m privileged to be a part of a small work detail from my home church, Calvary Chapel of Costa Mesa and also some guys from Calvary Chapel Chino Hills. Our objectives were to get some of the final bits of infrastructure in place at our base camp, so that we can start accommodating our aid teams directly on our ministry property in Jacmel, rather than having to house our teams in an assortment of houses located off-site in the surrounding area. Since we’ve arrived here, I’ve had the opportunity to work on a wide dynamic of projects – digging and setting a 10,000 gallon cistern, pulling hundreds of feet of wire to energize the Quonset huts that will house our teams and staff, wiring my first single-phase transfer switch (while it was live! yikes!), building shelves and a workbench in the generator room to help tidy up a bit, and an assortment of other odds and ends wherever needed. It’s been a lot of hard work at a very fervent pace…..in the sauna-like tropics of Haiti……..but it’s been an absolute blast working with this team, and seeing great things take shape towards the future ministry that will happen from this site.

I’ve also come here to survey this site for a large scale aquaponics installation. I’m happy to report that this site will easily accommodate a vibrantly productive aquaponics farm…..one that could yield large amounts of fish that could be used to feed our staff, teams, local labor, as well as be sold in the markets here. Our hope is to produce consistently high quality tilapia and vegetables in order to help the surrounding community in Jacmel both nutritionally and economically.

Please pray that the Lord would direct our plans.

Below is a small photo gallery of the first few days here in Haiti. I’ll keep adding to it as time (and internet access) permits.

God bless you, and thanks for taking the time to stop by.

Jacob Harman

Share / Bookmark

Share / Bookmark

Over the last few months, Applied Aquaponics has had the great priviledge to partner with Eastside Christian Church in getting their aquaponics mission ministry up and running.  I teamed up with Eastside’s Missions Pastor Arty VanGeloof, Aaron Flora,  and a fun team of young missionaries-in-training to construct a moderately sized aquaponics farm there at their site in Fullerton, California.  Below, Aaron Flora shares with us how this whole partnership came about, and what the future vision is for Eastside’s first very own aquaponics farm.  Exciting stuff!

Please click here for a sweet slideshow of the fun we had while building the farm.

(I hope you’ve got pop-ups enabled – otherwise, click here to be taken to our photo gallery)

———

4.26.2011 – Eastside Fullerton Farm Aquaponics

Hello, My name is Aaron Flora and I’m part of the team here at Eastside Christian Church, dedicated and excited about using aquaponics to feed, resource, and equip our hungry neighbors both locally and globally!

My journey began about 5 years ago when some friends and I hitched a ride with a small church in Huntington Beach, CA. to take a little surf trip down to Panama.  What we thought would be a relaxing getaway filled with monkeys, coconuts, and warm water, with a couple beach clean ups and bible studies, turned out to be an experience that radically changed the course of our lives forever.  We had fallen in love with these people…and no longer was finding the perfect wave our agenda, but easing the cries and lightening the burden of our new Panamanian friends in Santa Catalina! (a small fishing village in the Central Pacific region).  We learned everything we could about our new family, and scrounged up whatever resources available back home to help make life in this small town less stressful.  I quickly learned that their scarce diets and lack of simple nutrition where huge factors contributing to much of their discomfort.  It can be difficult to hear the good news of the gospel, when the growls of your stomach are defining you!  I was reminded of the woman at the well, the lepers, the paralyzed, and all the hungry, sick, and marginalized people that Jesus cared for not only spiritually, but also physically.  I thought of verses that spoke of cold cups of water and multiplying fish to feed thousands.  I had discovered there was another very tangible way to share the love of Jesus with my new friends, and it was through food and nutrition.

Coincidently, a friend of mine introduced me to her sister Tara who quickly critiqued my pathetic little vegetable garden at my house and insisted i meet her husband Jacob, who shared the same love for missions and nutrition, but had a much prettier garden then mine .  Jake had been involved with aquaponics as a means to share the love of our Lord for nearly 3 years, and we quickly hit it off.  Meanwhile…My buddy Arty who oversees local compassion at Eastside, approached me about wanting to start some agriculturally-based missions projects down in Kenya (with a goal to feed 6000 orphaned children)…and we all quickly agreed that clearly God was piecing some great resources and relationships together to pursue all our passions through the avenue of aquaponics!

And here we are…4 months into it, with big dreams of building many farms and training up more people to learn and understand how the simple yet efficient system works.  Ive been overwhelmed with the amount of excitement and encouragement for this project, and so grateful for those who have come along and given their time towards the vision and dreams we have for aquaponics, especially my dear friends Josh Earl and Brian Eager!  Many people within Eastside are seeing the potential these farms have for our hungry neighbors and are anxious to get involved!  I had no idea of the magnitude in which God would raise up such a huge, fun, hard working, healthy community to partner with and help make this dream a reality. Its been the best feeling in the world to work alongside some of my best friends and fellow church family members, all sharing the same vision for this ministry!  As of this last weekend, after bucketing a good 10 tons of gravel into our 4 huge grow beds, we (solely from volunteers) completed the entire farm, and are quickly entering phase 2…planting veggies and introducing our tilapia.

Enjoy the pics, well keep you posted…Thanks

Aaron

Share / Bookmark

www.youtube.com/watch?v=YuG0H-76cIU

Applied Aquaponics partnered with Red Wagon ministries of Calvary Chapel of Costa Mesa to bring some healthy butterhead lettuce and delicious swiss chard to the table for the afternoon lunch for the homeless.

Red Wagon supplies hot lunches and dinners twice a week for the homeless in the surrounding community of Santa Ana, CA.

(My apologies for the shaky hand-cam footage -- I didn’t realize I stomp so hard when I walk!!)

Share / Bookmark

www.youtube.com/watch?v=XmROjl_p-BE

Here’s a quick video update on the Aquaponics Project at Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa.

This update finds us closing out the last of our winter cruciferous crops.  We’re harvesting all these leafy greens and getting the beds ready for our summer varieties of corn, tomatoes, cucumbers, beans, squash, etc.  The fish are thriving, and probably close to 2500 in number…with roughly 500 ready for harvest, about 1000 adolescent age (4-6mos), and about 1000 juvenile to fry (0-3mos).

My sincerest apologies for falling so behind on the video updates for the aquaponics projects.  We’ve really been branching out in the area of community outreach as well as international missions efforts.  We are using an online project management software to come alongside 12 different international missions entities in hopes of helping them get up and running with aquaponics.  We are also in the process of working with the local school district through state and federal grants to create a comprehensive educational program that will help students learn aquaponics, along with many other small agri-business skills, community gardening, and working with local farmers markets to earn supplementary income.  Busy busy busy!!!

We Thank God for these wonderful opportunities to make a positive impact on our immediate community, as well as the far reaching endeavors in Uganda, Peru, El Salvador, Haiti, Mexico, and India, just to name a few.

Our dreams of reaching people with this technology for the Glory of God are finally coming true……and it is very exciting indeed!!

Thank you for your continued prayer and support!!

Grace and peace,
Jacob Harman

Share / Bookmark

www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSHVSvhJCvg

Here’s a short slideshow that I created for a Thanksgiving presentation that I made at Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa in 2010. This slideshow chronicles the early days of our aquaponics experiments as well as explains our vision for outreach to the world through agricultural missions work. Thank you so much for your time.

God Bless you!

Share / Bookmark

Hello friends,

Here are some of my first images from Uganda. The internet is excruciatingly slow and intermittent at best, but I managed to upload a handful of images to flickr. I will do my best to write some form of narrative to these images as I have time, but we’ve been very busy since we’ve hit the ground here.

In the first few days, we visited a high school, a junior high, an at-risk pregnancy clinic, and a bible school/church. These are all related through Bethel Ministries – a family of ministries that is support by our home church of Calvary Chapel of Costa Mesa. It was a real blessing to see how the Lord is working through that ministry here in Uganda.

Today, we will be putting together our second medical triage where we will serve the people of Kajansi with basic medical care and consultation services. Yesterday, we served the people in Namulanda in this way, and it was very well received.

Prior to that, Phil Twente, Ed Cornwell, and myself had the great privilege of preaching to roughly 100 ministers gathered from all across Africa for the ICM Inductive Bible Study conference. It was such a joy to be able to encourage these pastors from the book of Ephesians. Ministers from all over Africa – Sudan, Congo, Kenya, Somalia, Uganda, Ethiopia – all gathered for worship and the studying of God’s word together during this weeklong conference. It’s been a blessing beyond words.

I have shot thousands of photos in the past week. I will post more photos of the various locations where we are planning to implement aquaponics and biogas production in the very near future. It’s exciting to see how applicable and relevant this technology is to the ministry here. Please continue to pray for direction, wisdom, and continued blessings as we minister here in Uganda.
I”ll post more images as soon as time (and technology) permits. God bless!

Thank you for stopping by!

Jacob

Share / Bookmark

www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWyxEZVOdTM

Here’s a short video about one of he sites we’ll be visiting during our ministry in Uganda. New Hope Uganda is a ministry that our church has partnered with for the better part of 20 years. It’s an honor and privilege to finally make the trip over and meet these wonderful people that have invested their lives in the displaced youth of Uganda. I’m praying that our visit will be fruitful, and that our fellowship is encouraging, and that we could possibly work together on some aquaponics concepts, as well as biogas production and waste management solutions.

This is so exciting!

To God be the glory.

Share / Bookmark

www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KgnbXBcCyE

Here’s a video update for the Calvary Chapel Aquaponics facility on Oct. 3rd, 2010.

The fish are thriving, and continue to multiply in great numbers. We’re consistently moving the fish up our crude grading system as they grow, allowing space in our sumps for the new hatchlings to get a well protected start. Once the fish can eat an entire pellet of food, the growth seems exponential. The plants are also thriving on account of all of that ready-made nutrient brought right to the rootbase by our flood and drain irrigation setup. Things are really cranking!

I leave on wednesday morning for Uganda to look at 3 potential sites to apply an aquaponic approach to food generation. I don’t know how often I will be able make updates over the course of the next 3 weeks, but I plan on cueing a few automated posts for when I’m gone. Please continue to check back for updates, and pass on our site to anyone that might be interested in this type of aid work. Also, please pray for safe travels for our team, and also pray that we are met with great opportunities to bring blessings to the people of Uganda through this wonderful form of food production!
To God be the glory.

Thanks for tuning in……until next time,
Jacob Harman
John 21:15

Share / Bookmark

www.youtube.com/watch?v=xIxI2sY_TQk

Here a quick little video to explain our twist on the famous bell-siphon irrigation technique.   I’ll probably make a more detailed video soon without all the moving around and glare from the sun.

The pipes are all 1.5in ABS.  Our beds are 16ft long by 4ft wide, and about 10in deep.

Take care, Thanks for watching, and happy farming!

Share / Bookmark